900 words History paper

Historical Roots of the Holocaust & Continuing Anti-Semitism

© 2015 - R. Charles Weller

Historical Roots of Religious, Ethnic, Racial & Cultural

Discrimination

“XII. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development...”

Pt XII of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points proposal to end WWI, Jan 18, 1918

League of Nations Covenant, Article 22 The best method of giving practical effect

to this principle is that the tutelage of such peoples should be entrusted to

advanced nations who by reason of their resources, their experience or their

geographical position can best undertake this responsibility, and who are willing to accept it, and that this tutelage should be

exercised by them as Mandatories on behalf of the League.

(LN Covenant, Article 22, cont.) Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of

development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally

recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a

Mandatory [power] until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these

communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the

Mandatory [power].

Memorandum of the General Syrian Congress, July 2, 1919

“1. We ask absolutely complete political independence for Syria...

RACE & HUMAN IDENTITY

Religion Ethnicity (Kinship)

Nationality Political Citizenship

Language Culture

Civilization (Cf. also Gender & Class)

“What’s Your Ethnic Makeup?”

BALANCING HUMAN IDENTITY

Individual

Religious-Ethnic-National- Cultural-Civilizational

International-Global

Origins of Racism?

Children Children of

of God the Devil

Saved

Elect, Chosen

Obedient

Good

Righteous, Holy

Knowledgeable of Truth

Holy, Blessed People/Nation

Children/Kingdom of Light

God’s Kingdom

Rule/Authority of God

Lost, Perishing, Damned

Wandering, Aimless, Directionless

Disobedient

Evil

Unrighteous, Unholy

Deceived, Ignorant, In error

Unholy, cursed, under judgment

Children/Kingdom of Darkness

Satan’s Kingdom

Rule/Authority of Satan

“However, in the cities of the nations the LORD

your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not

leave alive anything that breathes. Completely

destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites,

Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—

as the LORD your God has commanded you.

Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the

detestable things they do in worshiping their

gods, and you will sin against the LORD your

God.”

Deuteronomy 20:16-18

Massacres of

Jews in Nile

region of

Egypt in 1st

century CE

Josephus, Philo

& Eusebius

Historical Roots of

Western Civilization

The Judeo-Christian

& Greek-Roman

Traditions

Bartlett describes legislation in parts of Eastern Europe in the fourteenth century that ___________________.

A. made German descent a requirement for holding office or belonging to a guild.

B. banned intermarriage between Germans and Slavs.

‘New World’ Explorers &

Enlightenment Philosophers as

Racists?

Hindu Caste System as Racist? ------------------------------------------------

Influence on British?

Darwinian Scientific

Racism

“such peoples should be entrusted to

advanced nations” (LN Cov. 22, 1919)

“the Arabs inhabiting the Syrian area

are not naturally less gifted than other more advanced races and that

they are by no means less developed”

(Syrian Congress, 1919)

Historical Roots of the Holocaust & Continuing Anti-Semitism

Anti-Jewish

vs.

Anti-Semitic?

RACE & HUMAN IDENTITY

Religion Ethnicity (Kinship)

Nationality Political Citizenship

Language Culture

Civilization

Anti-Jewish sentiment in…

European Christian History

&

The Holocaust

“The overall achievement of the conference was to demonstrate how important rigorous and

objective historical research into violence between Christians and

Jews is for creating better understanding between present-

day Christianity Judaism.”

“…offers a systematic comparison of Jewish life in medieval Islam

and Christendom--and the first in- depth explanation of why medieval Islamic-Jewish relations…were less

confrontational and violent than those between Christians and Jews

in the West.”

Historical Roots of the Holocaust & Continuing Anti-Semitism

Jews had been discriminated against and subjected to mistreatment and violence throughout Christian Europe since ________________.

__ the time of the early church (30-300 CE). __ the establishment of Christianity as the state religion by Constantine in the early 4th century CE. __ the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century CE. __ the rise of Islam in the early 7th century CE. __ the time of the Crusades in the 11th

century CE.

The Christian New Testament?

“…Pilate…took water and washed his hands before the crowd. “I am innocent of

this man’s blood,” he said. “You shall bear the responsibility.” All the [Jewish] people answered, “His blood be on us and

on our children!” So Pilate…had Jesus flogged and handed Him over to be

crucified.…” (Matt 27:24-26)

Justin Martyr (100-165 CE)

John Chrysostom (347-407 CE), “Against the Jews”

Isadore of Seville (560-636), “On the Catholic Faith, Against the Jews”

Julian of Toledo (642-690)

Agobard, Bishop of Lyon (779-840) “The Insolence of the Jews” (+ 2 others)

Peter the Venerable (1092-1156)

John Chrysostom (347-407 CE), “Against the Jews”

(III.1) “Many, I know, respect the Jews and think that their present way of life is a

venerable one. This is why I hasten to uproot and tear out this deadly opinion. …But the

synagogue is not only a brothel and a theater; it also is a den of robbers and a lodging for wild

beasts. …But when God forsakes a people, what hope of salvation is left? When God forsakes a

place, that place becomes the dwelling of demons. ”

(3) If, then, the Jews fail to know the Father, if they crucified the Son,

if they thrust off the help of the Spirit, who should not make bold to declare plainly that the synagogue

is a dwelling of demons?”

400s Ambrose opposes Theodosius re: civil rights for Jews in Christian Roman Empire -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

400s Jewish synagogue burned down in Mesopotamia (Iraq) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

600s “Jews lived untroubled lives among Christians in certain regions and were dealt with cruelly in others.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

600s Jews forced to choose baptism, slavery or exile in Byzantium, France & Spain

“In the late ancient and medieval history of Christian-Jewish

relations, … in numerous instances of harshly anti-Jewish preaching…

little concrete evidence attests to increased physical attacks on Jews

or an overall decline of Jewish well-being.”

Cohen, “Anti-Jewish Violence,” p. 44

“…notwithstanding the vociferous protestations of popes

and emperors, late medieval Jewish communities frequently

suffered serious losses of life and property…”

--Cohen, “Anti-Jewish Violence,” p. 44

The 1st & 2nd Crusades (1095-96 & 1145-46)

“Our intention is to attack the enemies of God in the East, but without having to cross vast

territories, since we have, right here under our noses, the Jews. Whereas there exists no race

more hostile to God.” -------------------------------------------------------------

The Inquisitions (12th-16th cc.)

1179 - The 3rd Lateran Council

“If any by the inspiration of God [Jews] are converted to the Christian faith, they are in no way to be deprived of

their possessions... …[It is our] duty to restore fully to these converts the share

of their inheritance and goods.”

1215 The 4th Lateran Council

“…it happens at times that through error Christians have relations with the women of Jews

or Muslims, and Jews and Muslims with Christian women. Therefore, that they may not,

under pretext of error of this sort, excuse themselves in the future for the excesses of such prohibited intercourse, we decree that such Jews

and Muslims of both sexes in every Christian province and at all times shall be marked off in

the eyes of the public from other peoples through the character of their dress. …

Moreover, during the last three days before Easter…, they shall not go forth in public at all,

for the reason that some of them on these very days, as we hear, …are not afraid to mock the Christians… And since we ought not to ignore

any insult to Him who blotted out our disgraceful deeds, we command that such

impudent fellows be checked by the secular princes by imposing on them proper punishment

so that they shall not at all presume to blaspheme Him who was crucified for us.”

(Canon 68)

“Since it is absurd that a blasphemer of Christ exercise authority over Christians, we on account

of the boldness of transgressors renew in this general council what the Synod of Toledo (589) wisely enacted in this matter, prohibiting Jews

from being given preference in the matter of public offices, since in such capacity they are

most troublesome to the Christians.”

(Canon 69)

1227 Synod of Narbonne

“That Jews may be distinguished from others, we decree and emphatically command that in the center of the breast [of their garments] they

shall wear an oval badge... And lest they scandalize Christians or be scandalized by

Christians, we wish and ordain that during Holy Week they shall not leave their houses at all

except in case of urgent necessity, and the prelates shall during that week especially have them guarded from vexation by the Christians.”

(Canon 3)

1290 Jews driven from England

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1340s Blame for the Black Death – ca. 20,000 Jews put to death.

1348 – Pope Clement issues “Mandate to Protect the Jews”:

“We … are mindful of our duty to shelter the Jews, by reason of the fact that our savior, when he assumed mortal flesh for the salvation of the human race, deemed it worthy to be born of Jewish stock.…

Recently, however, it has come to our attention … that some Christians out of rashness have impiously slain several Jews … after falsely blaming the pestilence on poisonings by Jews, said to be in league with the devil,…

We order all of you [bishops] by apostolic writing … to warn your subjects, both the clergy and the people, during the service of mass in your churches, and to expressly enjoin them on pain of excommunication, which you may then inflict in those who transgress, that they not presume to seize, strike, wound, or kill Jews.”

1374 An ecstatic movement of 'demonically possessed dancers' arose in Germany, Holland and surrounding areas, with 1000s of Jews eventually blamed and killed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1391 A wave of pogroms swept through the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon: 50,000 Jews killed; 20,000 Jews forcibly baptized ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1394 Jews driven out of France

1434 “Across Europe Jews were forced to wear...a yellow patch, bells & tall, pointed yellow hats...” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1453 Franciscan monk, Capistrano, persuaded the king of Poland to terminate all Jewish civil rights. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1509 Persecution of Jews in Germany, with the converted Jew, Johann Pfefferkorn, receiving authority from Emperor Maximilian I to confiscate & destroy all Jewish books.

1500s As the opposite of ‘anti-Semitism’, ‘Philo-Semitism’ began to emerge in Western Europe through ___________.

__ humanist influence in the Renaissance.

__ sympathy from persecuted religious minorities in the Reformation. (cf. beginnings of Christian Zionism)

1509: The humanist Johann Reuchlin

opposes persecution of Jews in Germany.

1509: The humanist Johann Reuchlin

opposes persecution of Jews in Germany. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1589-1671: Rise of early (proto-) Christian Zionist beliefs in England (cf. publications of Kett (1589), Brightman (1615), Finch (1621), Cartwright (1649) & Milton (1671)). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1656: Jews welcomed back to England under Cromwell and newly established gov’t led by formerly persecuted Puritans.

1516 Jews assigned to Ghetto Island in Venice (1st Jewish ‘ghetto') --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1526 Persecution of Jews in Hungary. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1550 Jews exiled from Genoa and Venice. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1555 (July 12) Papal Decree requires Jews to wear badges and yellow veils or cloth markers as well as live in specially designated 'ghettos’ (cf. ‘segregation’). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1582 Jews expelled from Holland.

1648 Some 200,000 Jews slaughtered in Poland by invading Ukrainian Cossacks amid war between Poland and Russian-Swedish alliance.

The fostering of a deeply entrenched anti-Jewish attitude

throughout Christian Europe from as early as 100 CE

…led to…

Repeated outbreaks of discrimination, persecution and

violence against Jews

“However, it all coincides with the judgment of Christ which declares that they are venomous,

bitter, vindictive, tricky serpents, assassins, and children of the devil who sting and work harm

stealthily wherever they cannot do it openly. ...these venomous serpents and young devils. ...next to the

devil, a Christian has no more bitter and galling foe than a Jew. There is no other to whom we accord as

many benefactions and from whom we suffer as much as we do from these base children of the devil, this brood of vipers... these venomous serpents and

devil's children, who are the most vehement enemies of Christ our Lord and of us all.”

“What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we

are aware of their lying and reviling and blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing and blasphemy. ...I shall give you my

sincere advice: First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor

of our Lord and of Christendom,...”

“Moses writes that any city that is given to idolatry shall be totally destroyed by fire, and

nothing of it shall be preserved. If he were alive today, he would be the first to set fire to the

synagogues and houses of the Jews. ...I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. ...I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing,

and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. ...I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach

henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. ....

“...I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. ...

My essay, I hope, will furnish a Christian...with enough material not only to defend himself

against the blind, venomous Jews, but also to become the foe of the Jews' malice, lying, and cursing, and to understand not only that their belief is false but that they are surely possessed by all devils. May Christ, our dear Lord, convert

them mercifully...”

“He did not call them Abraham's children, but a "brood of vipers" [Matt. 3:7]. …Our Lord also calls

them a "brood of vipers"; furthermore in John 8 [39,44] he states: "If you

were Abraham's children ye would do what Abraham did.... You are of your

father the devil.”

“Christopher J. Probst demonstrates that a significant number of German theologians and clergy made use of

the 16th-century writings by Martin Luther on Jews and Judaism to

reinforce the racial antisemitism and religious anti-Judaism already present among Protestants.”

1- Were the ideas which Luther stated in his book in 1543 new within the history of European Christian

thought at that time?

Cf. Luther & the German Peasant Revolt (1524-26)

“Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of

Peasants”

*Do Luther’s anti- Jewish ideas resemble

current Western Christian attitudes towards Muslims in

any way?

2a- In connection with the importance of Martin Luther within Western European and Christian

thought, how significant and far-reaching was his choice

to publish his booklet On the Jews and Their Lies?

2b- Did Luther’s book influence or was it

used by Nazi Germany? If so, how?

In what ways?

Comparing & Connecting

Luther & Hitler

True or False? Hitler based some of

his ideas and strategies on lessons drawn from

European history.

How are Luther’s and Hitler’s approaches to ‘The Jewish Question’ similar? In what ways

are they different?

How do these primary source

documents help us understand the

historical roots of:

a) The relationship of the Holocaust to the Palestinian-

Israeli conflict?

b) Western European and Christian anti-Semitism?

c) Nazi German anti-Semitism in particular?

d) Current, continuing anti- Semitism?

How do these documents help us understand other

contemporary as well as historical forms of

discrimination? (Cf. racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious, national-political, gender, sexual, class, etc.)

7- In what ways, if any, does a study of these primary sources

change or provide new perspective on our

understanding of history, particularly Luther and the

Protestant movement, Hitler and Nazi Germany, and the relation between the two?

“Church policy…must in the

end bear the major

responsibility for the

transformation of the popular

attitude toward the Jew”

(p. 161)

“Was there a direct line from the anti-Jewish passages in the New

Testament to the gas chambers at Auschwitz as some have alleged?

Probably not. The line was indirect, beginning around 150 with gentile

misreadings of the bitter intra-Jewish polemic contained in those writings.

“The theological anti-Judaism of the Church fathers, repeated endlessly in medieval and Renaissance-Reformation preaching, was the far greater culprit. It

was the continuing rationale for the indefensible Christian conduct of the

middle ages onward that was xenophobic and angry at Jewish resistance to

absorption into the cultural mainstream.”

Sloyan, “Christian Persecution of Jews over the Centuries,” p. 11.

As the opposite of ‘anti-Semitism’, ‘Philo- Semitism’ began to emerge in Western Europe through ________________.

__ humanist influence in the Renaissance.

__ sympathy from persecuted religious minorities in the Reformation.

1789-1815: Jewish civil rights granted in French Revolution & the Napoleonic Law Code

(69) 21. In the German lands invaded and occupied by Napoleon (1800-

1815), the reaction against everything that the French Revolution stood for encouraged an exceptionally hostile

attitude toward Jews, not least because one of the egalitarian reforms

forced by Napoleon on defeated or compliant German principalities was

Jewish emancipation. T or F

(77) 22. A great popular outcry against Jewish emancipation

impelled the upper house, in 1850, to reject the bill passed in 1849 by the lower house of the Bavarian

(German) Parliament which equalized the civil status of Jews.

T or F

(72) 23. The growth of a firm conviction on the part of some Germans that assimilation of the Jews into Germany was _________ was the mainspring of the anti-Semitic racism that developed after German unification in 1870.

A. unfair

B. undesirable

C. impossible

(78-79) 24. ___________________ was the first systematic presentation from a secular perspective of the view that Jews were corrupt by nature and not because of their beliefs.

A. Wilhelm Marr, The Victory of the Jews over the Germans (12 eds, 1862-79)

B. Karl Eugen Duhring, The Jewish Question as a Problem of Racial Character (1880)

Cf. also…

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

(1897-1905, originally in Russian, tr. into German,

French, English, etc.)

(103) 27. Antisemitism was endemic to most central and

eastern European nations in the early twentieth century, but it did not lead to anything comparable to the massive assault on Jewish

rights that took place in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

(125) 37. After the officially sponsored Kristallnacht pogrom (assault) of 1938, the public segregation of Jews was carried to extremes in Nazi Germany by ______________.

A. denial of all access to public transportation.

B. forbidding their children to attend public schools.

C. imposition of a special curfew upon them.

D. restriction of shopping hours.

E. denial of the right to operate businesses.

F. denial of the right to own substantial property.

The holocaust is roughly divided into two periods, before and after _______________.

__ 1924, following Hitler’s publication of ‘Mein Kampf’.

__ 1933, following Hitler’s election as Chancellor of Germany.

__ 1938, following Kristallnacht.

__ 1941, following the Wannsee Conference.

The second phase of the Holocaust following 1941 spread to Nazi- occupied Europe and involved _____________.

__ forced labor. __ mass shootings. __ concentration camps. __ the ‘Final Solution’ of mass extermination in gas chambers.

16. Western, Israeli, and other scholars have

highlighted ____________ cooperation with the

Nazis in World War II in an attempt to discredit

_________ in the Middle East, former Soviet

Union, and broader world.

__ Muslim/Islam

__ Christian/Christianity

__ Catholic/Catholicism

__ all of the above. __ only 2 and 3 above.

“There is no more inflammatory topic than the Arabs and

the Holocaust—the phrase alone can occasion outrage.

…In this path-breaking book, political scientist Gilbert

Achcar explores these conflicting narratives and considers

their role in today's Middle East dispute. He analyzes the

various Arab responses to Nazism, …critically assessing

the political and historical context for these responses.

Finally, he challenges distortions of the historical record,

while making no concessions to anti-Semitism or

Holocaust denial. …Achcar offers a unique mapping of

the Arab world, in the process defusing an international

propaganda war that has become a major stumbling block

in the path of Arab-Western understanding.”

“The Church’s failure to protest the

Holocaust — the infamous ‘silence’ of Pius

XII — is only part of the story: the death

camps, Carroll shows, are the culmination

of a long, entrenched tradition of anti-

Judaism. From Gospel accounts of the

death of Jesus on the cross, to…modern

anti-Semitism, Carroll reconstructs the

dramatic story of the Church’s conflict not

only with Jews but with itself.”

17. Various _________________ peoples

and/or groups formed cooperative agreements

or alliances with the Nazis in World War II.

__ Muslim

__ Christian and Catholic

__ Jewish

During the Holocaust an estimated ____________ Jews died.

__ 400,000 __ 2 million __ 3.5 million __ 6 million __ 11 million __ 14 million

In Stalinist Russia, between 1930 and 1953, an estimated ____________ people were tortured and put to death in ‘Gulag’ concentration camps and mass executions similar to and even more brutal in some ways than those of Nazi Germany.

__ three million __ seven million __ twelve million __ seventeen million __ twenty million

The Holocaust became the supreme justification and motivation for ____________.

__ the founding of the state of Israel in the Middle East in 1948.

__ anti-racist and anti-nationalist movements around the world, including the U.S. Black Civil Rights and South African Anti-Apartheid Movements in the latter half of the 20th century.

The Holocaust was so catastrophic, repulsive and shocking that no one denies

that it ever happened.

T or F

“Any doubts about the existence of mass graves at the Treblinka death

camp in Poland are being laid to rest by the first survey of the site

using tools that see below the ground…”

-- Caroline Sturdy Colls, Forensic archaeologist

(BBC News Magazine, 23 Jan 2012)

The War Diaries of Joseph Goebbels

(1948, pp 86, 147-48)

February 14, 1942: “The Führer once again expressed his determination to clean up the Jews in Europe pitilessly.

There must be no squeamish sentimentalism about it. The Jews have deserved the catastrophe that has now overtaken them. Their destruction will go hand in hand with the destruction of

our enemies. We must hasten this process with cold ruthlessness.”

March 27, 1942: “The procedure is a pretty barbaric one and not to be described here more definitely. Not much will remain of the Jews. On

the whole it can be said that about 60 per cent of them will have to be

liquidated whereas only 40 per cent can be used for forced labor.”